#5Stepping Part 2: Stepping Out!

The second step to a healthier, wealthier you is almost as simple as the first: keep drinking the water… and start taking some steps – and more than just five of them!

Once upon a time when, if you wanted to get somewhere, walking was most likely the only option.  As hunter-gatherers, most days would have probably involved walking ten to twelve miles, presumably with days off if a mammoth had been bagged recently.  Then someone invented the wheel, domesticated oxen to pull them, bred horses to pull them faster and discovered how crude oil could be refined to make them go with a bang.  These days, few people even manage ten miles per week.

#5stepping to Wealth, not just Health

Another very good reason to drink water is that it’s the world’s best diet drink … it has ZERO calories!!

By comparison, the typical ‘2 unit’ alcoholic drink contains between 200 and 300 calories, and a bottle of cola or an energy drink over 300 – and what’s worse, they’re ‘empty’ calories, devoid of any nutritional value.

So, if you’re #5stepping (and, if you’re not, you should be), you’ll see why replacing one alcoholic and one caffeinated drink per day is going to help you lose weight – to put it into perspective, 500 calories a day is ONE-THIRD of the average daily requirement for most adults, it’s the equivalent of two Mars Bars, it’s 3,500 calories a week, it the equivalent of a whole meal, it’s 182,000 calories a year!

Who needs to diet if you’re #5stepping?  

STEP #1: WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE … SO WHY NOT DRINK SOME!

So the thirteenth day of Christmas has arrived and within the seasonal conundrum of how to lose the half a stone gained over the previous fortnight and pay off the credit card purchases that didn’t seem a problem until the statement arrived.

It’s time to start #5stepping, and you can follow the campaign with daily tips and updates @5stepper and on Facebook http://ow.ly/GVb6H

So, in the spirit of seasonal panto, let’s start with a simple question: Do you take drugs?

Oh no I don’t…

Oh yes you do…

Although most of us wouldn't dream of consciously taking psychoactive drugs or drinking poison, how many of us down caffeine every day in our teas, coffees, colas and energy drinks – or even in products such as waffles, sunflower seeds, trail mix, jelly beans and chewing gum? The UK's Food and Drug Administration's recommended maximum intake is the equivalent of four to five (regular) cups of tea or coffee per day: without any extras from other caffeine containing products.

Then, when we’ve finished spending the day downing caffeine (a stimulant), we're countering it with a poisonous depressant – alcohol! Almost everyone thinks they drink less than they actually do; often by underestimating the size of home measures or the strength of the drink, and about one-third of the adult population are estimated to be seriously damaging their long-term mental or physical health by the amount of alcohol they consume.

Cutting down on coffee and booze are usually top of the New Year's Resolutions list but, rather than giving up, why not do something positive about it instead?